The disclosures herein relate generally to computer system power supplies and more particularly to a method and apparatus for inserting the power supply into a computer chassis and extracting the power supply from the chassis.
There are several areas of concern with regard to the insertion and extraction of power supplies in computer chassis. One area concerns the insertion and extraction force. In a computer chassis with a power supply that is "blind mated", i.e. inserted into a multi-contact connector receptacle which is not in sight during insertion, there may be a considerable force required to install and extract the power supply. Because it is undesirable to impose shock loads on other components in the chassis, slamming the power supply in place or yanking the power supply from the chassis are undesirable alternatives.
One attempt to overcome this problem is to use a screw mechanism to avoid sudden insertion and retraction forces on the connectors to seat or unseat the power supply such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,854. However, the screw mechanism comprises several parts and is expensive. Another extraction device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,436.
Another area of concern is "hot plugging" which involves the insertion or extraction of one of the power supplies in a redundant system when the system is "live." It is desirable for the particular power supply to be turned off at the time it is being inserted or extracted. This is to reduce the potential for sparking at the connector contacts. The redundant system, which includes multiple power supplies, is designed to compensate during the hot plugging operation of one of the power supplies. Thus, the problem of keeping the particular power supply off during the hot plugging operation has been addressed by providing a manual on/off switch on each power supply. In this manner, a particular power supply which is being inserted or extracted can be manually turned off during replacement while the system remains live.
Still another area of concern is that an AC power cable, which plugs directly into each power supply, can be accidentally removed if bumped, caught or entangled in some way. This would result in an undesirable shutting down of a power supply. To address this problem, cable retention devices have been provided to protect from unintentional removal of the AC plugs.
Each of the above-mentioned solutions carry a common theme which is that a separate part or solution has been provided for each problem. Therefore, what is needed is a single device which has features addressing each of the above-mentioned areas of concern, i.e. which can reduce the extraction and insertion force without the use of tools, which can actuate the power supply on/off switch, and which incorporates a cable retention device.